Lonnie Walker Appreciation Thread

[RC_Drunkford]

His summer league performance will determine if he'll get some playing time next season

[ceperez]

Though I'd like to see him play, and as crazy as it sounds, but I always feel while watching him that he's deceptively unathletic.

Sounds bizarre, but that's the feeling I get. Whether it was college or the g-league, he just looks like he should be a lot more explosive. Maybe it's the knee injuries the whole time, but damn if he doesn't look like he should be jumping out of this world and dunking on people like Zhaire in a Clean Room.

He has that great first step but doesn't get it to the rim like I think he should be able to. Physically he might look like a young Dwyane Wade and should be attacking and getting fouled and getting and-1s but he plays more like a faster Bryn Forbes

PATFO will need to figure out where he can be slotted in the current rotation.

The starting five ... White, Forbes, DeRozan, Aldrige, Poetl covers up for Forbes defensive liability and needs Forbes to spread the floor. It's possible for Walker to replace Forbes and plug the defensive hole. It'll depend on how good a 3pt shooter Walker is.

The bench ... Mills, Walker, Belinelli, Bertans, Gay. This has a nice balance to it, it is small ball.

Spurs have only 9 players in the regular rotation, this isn't sustainable. I don't see Metu making any leaps compared to Walker. I don't see QPon or Cunningham ever becoming a rotation player.

[John B]

PATFO will need to figure out where he can be slotted in the current rotation.

The starting five ... White, Forbes, DeRozan, Aldrige, Poetl covers up for Forbes defensive liability and needs Forbes to spread the floor. It's possible for Walker to replace Forbes and plug the defensive hole. It'll depend on how good a 3pt shooter Walker is.

The bench ... Mills, Walker, Belinelli, Bertans, Gay. This has a nice balance to it, it is small ball.

Spurs have only 9 players in the regular rotation, this isn't sustainable. I don't see Metu making any leaps compared to Walker. I don't see QPon or Cunningham ever becoming a rotation player.

Eubanks could be playing tbh. He’s not the most exciting thing, but his NBA-ready of all the youngsters and pretty solid moves. He can do cleanup assignments to lessen Aldridge minutes imo

[lmbebo]

on NBA radio they discussed that Walker was slotted to get real playing time before the season started. Then his knee injury happened.

They believed we would have been a top 3 seed in the west if not for injuries this year (Murray, Walker, White) and at time DDR and Gay.

[John B]

on NBA radio they discussed that Walker was slotted to get real playing time before the season started. Then his knee injury happened.

They believed we would have been a top 3 seed in the west if not for injuries this year (Murray, Walker, White) and at time DDR and Gay.

Easily. That Murray/White tandem can frustrate any guards combination and add Poeltl to swat whoever gets by, if ever. Scores would be in the 90’s every night

[GAustex]

White looks great with decision making/ball handling and sneaky athlecticism and defense and shooting of all sorts
Murry is intriguing with his defense and

athleticism

but really needs to improve decision making and shooting
Walker has shown nothing except he can jump and sometimes get his shot. Walker is young so he could get better. Walker is typical AAU baller-no defense at all-individual or team and only kicks it in on offense when he has the ball in his hands.

[dbestpro]

Not sure White would have gotten the minutes to develop as well as he has without the injuries. I think in the long run we will look back on this as a positive in a strange sort of way.

[R. DeMurre]

His summer league performance will determine if he'll get some playing time next season

Yeah, I agree.. This is why I had so much confidence/interest in Derrick White at the beginning of this season: he'd dominated the G League and then followed it up by dominating the Summer league. He was clearly a level above the guys around him. So far, Walker is pretty up & down with the G League. He's had good games, but also a few clunkers. His last game down there, he was 2-10 from the field, 0-5 from three, had two shots blocked, with 1 assist and 0 rebounds... strangely though, he was also the only player getting significant minutes with a positive +/- in a game that the team lost by 15 points. But he hasn't excelled against that compe ion to the same degree that White did last year.

[ace3g]

[gambit1990]

jordan don’t know , spurs should try to package lonnie and demar in a sign and trade for kemba. would even do ddr + murray.

[$pursDynasty]

Looking forward to our Summer League team next year, wonder if Becky will coach and if Lonnie and Metu will dominate like Fathead and Juice used to.

[ace3g]

[look_at_g_shred]

Imagine Lonnie being able to catch and shoot 3's

[GreekSpursfan]

I want to see him being a lockdown defender first and a spot up 3pt shooter and slowly expand his game. From i've seen he has a lot of work to do to improve on both ends.

[exstatic]

I want to see him being a lockdown defender first and a spot up 3pt shooter and slowly expand his game. From i've seen he has a lot of work to do to improve on both ends.

His offense is a lot further along than his defense. He shot 38.5% on mostly catch and shoot 3s. His form was superb, even in college. He just had poor shot selection, something the Spurs will clean up.

[GAustex]

His offense is a lot further along than his defense. He shot 38.5% on mostly catch and shoot 3s. His form was superb, even in college. He just had poor shot selection, something the Spurs will clean up.

He needs to somehow get Mills minutes

[BackHome]

Walkers first few games were terrible but as he started to get more comfortable and started to play much better. He got better pretty quickly considering he was coming off a knee injury I think some people forget that when judging his play. I am not a Walker fan boy and was on him in the beginning but he won me over and I think if Pop gives him a long leash he will make a big impact on the team...In a good way. Lol

[Ice009]

I love the way he started playing when he starting getting some minutes towards the end of the season. I think it was a game against Denver, even though it was garbage time, he played quite well when he got the minutes towards the end of that game.

[alpha_HaZE]

I am excited for summer league, and Lonnie is a big part of that.

I compared his per 36min stats during this past season with White's and Dejounte's (season two, not last one) and are identically the same, well almost! Dejounte is elite in rebounding, Derrick is above average, and Lonnie needs improvement, but Lonnie is also by far the best three point shooter, so that's that. And, obviously, Derrick is the better passer, and that's it as well. So to summarize Dejounte rebounds, Derrick distributes, and Lonnie makes threes.

So if Lonnie were to play solid defence, he would probably have a Derrick White kind of year. And to those who are hesitant because Lonnie played so little because of injuries (too small of a sample), I also I looked at their per36 in G-league stats (large enough sample) and guess what, they are also identical except for rebounds, assists, and the point percentage!

So not only are those three are really good, but complement each other very well!

[J_Paco]

I am excited for summer league, and Lonnie is a big part of that.

I compared his per 36min stats during this past season with White's and Dejounte's (season two, not last one) and are identically the same, well almost! Dejounte is elite in rebounding, Derrick is above average, and Lonnie needs improvement, but Lonnie is also by far the best three point shooter, so that's that. And, obviously, Derrick is the better passer, and that's it as well. So to summarize Dejounte rebounds, Derrick distributes, and Lonnie makes threes.

So if Lonnie were to play solid defence, he would probably have a Derrick White kind of year. And to those who are hesitant because Lonnie played so little because of injuries (too small of a sample), I also I looked at their per36 in G-league stats (large enough sample) and guess what, they are also identical except for rebounds, assists, and the point percentage!

So not only are those three are really good, but complement each other very well!

Nice, a three - headed monster at the guard spot (ala Denver) is a dream scenario in this guard dominant league.

Now, we just need Pop to drop Patty and Marco from the roster....

[GreekSpursfan]

His offense is a lot further along than his defense. He shot 38.5% on mostly catch and shoot 3s. His form was superb, even in college. He just had poor shot selection, something the Spurs will clean up.

I'm not as high on him as others. My first concern about every young player is defense because thats all about effort and commitment and i didn't see any of that from him. We don't need players especially young chilling on defense to keep themselves fresh on the other end.
If he doesn't show commitment on defense i don't think Pop is gonna give him more chances than he did this year.

[BackHome]

I agree but I don’t think it was for lack of effort more so being in the right place at the right time. It always takes awhile for players to feel confident in knowing defensive sets and not over thinking everything and just playing. That’s Bertans problem you can tell he is over thinking on offense and defense and you can’t do that in the NBA.

[D-Robinson 50 fan]

The few minutes he got later during the regular season he did a solid job of man defense but got caught a couple of times ball watching while playing off ball defense.

He has the athletic ability and body to be a plus defender and he talked about and knows the way to get actual playing time in NBA games he has to play defense.

If he listens to the coaching staff and stays healthy the young man at the worst will be a solid player with a long career in the NBA. If he is really a gym rat he can become a all star caliber player because his shooting stroke is already good, he is a great athlete, and he already has an NBA body

[BackHome]

One thing that surprised me when Spurs called him up he was the primary ball handler bringing the ball up which wasn’t the case in G League. He actually did a good job his handles kinda surprised me I am wondering what role they want him to play next season?

[DJR210]

I want to see him being a lockdown defender first and a spot up 3pt shooter and slowly expand his game. From i've seen he has a lot of work to do to improve on both ends.

He's got the body for it.. Much more bulk than Murray with the same 6'10" wingspan. Dude can still jump judging from that dunk attempt at Denver..